- info@ibtc.co.uk
Bjorn Adne Kvalvik
from Norway
graduated 2005
You will meet people who have the same passion as you, and instructors who will help you make this course just as good as you want it to be.
I used to work as an IT-consultant, and found that I spent too much time in front of the computer. I have always enjoyed working with my hands, and thought that I had to do something soon. Since I have spent most of my holidays and vacations on a small island far west in Norway, I have grown up using boats of all kinds. I gradually realized that I wanted to know more about how to build these boats and how to keep and maintain them. They are after all a big part of our history.
I chose the IBTC because it was recommended to me by a former boatbuilding-teacher in Norway. He had a trip over a few years earlier and said to me it looked like a very good school and course. I then contacted the IBTC, and had a trip over to see for myself. It just looked great and very professional. The smell, the nice things lying and hanging around, ready to go on the boats. It was a bit of a step for me to quit my job, but during my visit I became convinced that this was what I had to do.
I have achieved a lot at the IBTC. As for boatbuilding and woodworking it was great to see that even with my lack of experience, the instructors led me to a level I was very proud of and didn’t know I could achieve. I had to learn all the English words for the different parts of the boats, but since we were working in an authentic environment and boatyard, it all fell into place. Most of all I got to meet a lot of good people, which now are friends and sometimes colleagues. I have my experiences from the IBTC in mind everyday working with boats, and even when I do a bit of computer-work.
You should do the course because it will give you much. You will get to try out your skills, touch, smell and feel wood. Most of all you will learn how to choose and shape wood into beautiful and meaningful elements. You will meet people who have the same passion as you, and instructors who will help you make this course just as good as you want it to be. Working with wooden boats contains so much knowledge about wood, history and traditions, as well as working up your skills to make the boat a fine-tuned floating tool.
During the course I had two offers to continue my studies in boatbuilding. In Norway to become a boatbuilder you have to do a total of 4 years of relevant theory and practise. I chose to start my apprenticeship at Hardanger Fartøyvernsenter (http://www.fartoyvern.no). Here I specialized in building traditional wooden clinkerboats from the Hardanger area. I had a very nice three years here, digging into the tradition. Speaking to old boatbuilders, examining old boats, making tools, and of course building these boats. My theory at the IBTC was recognized as fully qualified theory, which I found extremely good.
After 4 years of work at the Hardanger Fartøyvernsenter I am now ready to start up my own business. My plan is to get knowledge and specialize in one or two traditional boat-types from the very west coast of Norway. There are very few people left here who now know how to build this type of boats, so that really challenges me to get going!
Hopefully during 2010 I will have the most western Norwegian traditional wooden boat workshop up and running!